Side rails are commonly used for tensioning and supporting screens in a screen deck. The side rails are removably attached to upright side, walls in the deck so as to engage a screen at its side edges and tension the screen in a secure manner.
Various techniques have been utilized to removably attach the screen rails to the side walls. A common technique involves the use of bolts or pins which extend through apertures in the screen rails and corresponding apertures in the side walls. A fastener is used to secure the bolt or pin in place. The bolt or pin head is thus located on the side of the screen rail which is exposed to the rock being screened.
A particularly useful type of screen rail is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,223, incorporated herein by reference. In that patent I described a reinforced screen rail in which the upper portion is curved toward one side and in which the lower portion includes a leg projecting in the same direction. A metal reinforcing layer extends substantially along the entire length of the rail. Another reinforcement member surrounds each of the openings in the rail.
When it is necessary to change or otherwise remove a screen in a screen deck, it is necessary to loosen and remove the nuts on the bolts which secure the screen rail to the deck. Then the bolts must be removed from the rail. If the bolts are not removed from the rail, they can easily fall out when the rail is handled, after which the bolts may fall through the screens in the deck or roll down the deck. Consequently, to avoid these problems, the bolts are normally removed from the rail and placed in a can or other container. This requires extra time. Then when the rail is installed again, each bolt must be individually removed from the can and inserted through the registering openings in the rail and the screen deck. This also is time consuming.
There has not heretofore been provided a simple and effective means to retain the bolts in the screen rail when the rail is loosened and detached from the screen deck.